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LENT
(FEBRUARY 25 - APRIL 8)
We
are again spending the Forty Days of Lent with Our Lord
in the wilderness, trying in some degree to imitate Him,
Who the better to sanctify Himself for our salvation,
retired into the desert country beyond Jordan and passed
forty days and forty nights in prayer and fasting.
In
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus mentioned three things
which are fundamental in the Christian religion and essential
in some degree to our salvation. Certainly, without them
no one could be a Saint, and St. Paul, in the Epistle
to the Romans, says we are "All called to be Saints."
[Rom.1:7]
These three things are: first, to give alms; second, to
pray; and third, to fast. These three important factors
in a truly Christian life must be exercised to a greater
or lesser degree at all times, but more particularly are
they to be emphasized during the holy season of Lent,
if we would pass the time from Ash Wednesday to Easter
Sunday in a manner most agreeable to the divine will and
most advantageous for the eternal well-being and happiness
of our immortal souls.
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Let
us recall to mind, therefore, the words of Christ.
"When you give alms," He says,
Sound not a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and in the streets that they
may be honored by men. Amen, I say to you they have
received their reward. But when you give alms, let
not your left hand know what your right hand is
doing, that your alms may be in secret, and your
Father, Who sees in secret, will repay you. [Matt.
6:2-4]
Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where
the rust and moth consume, and where thieves break
in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures
in Heaven, where neither rust nor moth consumes,
and where thieves do not break in and steal. [Matt.
6:19-20]
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To
pray effectively, it is not necessary for us to compose
long, extemporaneous prayers, or to read those that have
been composed for us in prayer books, of which there are
so many. An "Our Father" and a "Hail Mary,"
said with intention, suffices because God, Who knows before
we ask what we need, has provided the Lord's Prayer to
cover everything, and the Holy Spirit has added to the
Lord's Prayer through the lips of the Archangel Gabriel
and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, the "Hail
Mary." The "Pater Noster" and the "Ave
Maria," therefore, said together with intention and
recollection make the best and most effective form of
prayer.
Besides the hearing of Mass, and visits according to our
opportunity to Jesus in the Tabernacle, we should pray
much in the retirement of our own home, particularly during
Lent, making a meditation with the help of a New Testament,
or some other spiritual book, for at least fifteen minutes
every day. It is also possible to cultivate a spirit of
interior recollection by which we are always mindful of
the presence of God, and can pray in the hidden chamber
of our own soul even while we walk along the street, or
work in the factory, the store, or the counting-room of
the bank.
And lastly, we must not neglect to fast. And again, it
is Jesus who tells us how we are to fast.
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you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad; for they
disfigure their faces that they may appear to men
to fast. Amen, I say to you they have received their
reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and
wash your face, that you appear not to men to fast,
but your Father, Who is in secret; and your Father,
Who sees in secret, will repay you. [Matt.6:16-18] |
A
faithful observance of the Church's Lenten regulations
of fasting are sure to bring to us rich rewards, provided
we have an eye solely to pleasing God and the greater
sanctification of our own souls, and not because the eyes
of our companions are upon us, whose esteem in religious
matters is as the fragrance of incense to our spiritual
pride.
There are many ways in which we can secretly practice
mortification at meal times without our companions suspecting
that we are doing so. And the more we can keep the thing
secret in self-denial of every sort, the richer benediction
will come to us from the Giver of every good and perfect
gift. [Jas.1:17] (The Lamp Mar. 1924 pp.91-92)
For
a printable version of this article click
here.
WORLD
DAY OF PRAYER (MARCH 6)
Prayer
is the Christian's vital breath. The apostolic injunction
is: "Pray without ceasing." [1 Th.5:17] God
wills that nothing can be accomplished by His elect without
prayer. As no single soul can be saved without prayer,
how much less can the world be saved unless prayer prepare
the way. We have no doubt whatsoever that it was the myriads
of Masses and the billions of prayers offered up everywhere
by the faithful in union with the Vicar of Christ, which
has brought World War [I] to an end, before the wise men
of the army and state anticipated its conclusion. (The
Lamp Dec. 1918 p.708)
For
a printable version of this article click
here.
ST.
PATRICK'S DAY (MARCH 17)
You Readers that are the sons and daughters of a thousand
Catholic households of faith, you who have been the object
of maternal love from your own infancy, have you ever
stopped to think how much you owe to Jesus Christ for
having provided you with such a mother as it has been
your privilege to love and honor ever since the earliest
memories of childhood? Among the songs of Ireland, none
surpasses in beauty and popularity "Mother Machree."
And the tribute paid in that beautiful ballad to the Irish
mother is richly deserved by so many million Mother Machrees,
only because of the preaching of St. Patrick and the Catholic
Faith implanted in the Irish mother's mind, heart and
soul!
How
proud, therefore, and happy, all of us should be that
God, in His goodness, has shared the Word made flesh with
all who have been baptized into Christ's Mystical Body,
and have received Mary's Son in Holy Communion. (The Lamp
Dec. 1926 pp.379-380)
For
a printable version of this article click
here.
ANNUNCIATION
OF THE LORD (MARCH 26)
Let
me help you form a right estimate of Mary's dignity from
the consideration of the words addressed to her by the
Archangel Gabriel. First the angelic salutation: "Hail,
you who are highly favored, (full of grace) the Lord is
with you. Blessed are you among women." [Lk. 1:28]
Surely we must bow our heads very low in paying tribute
to the dignity of this Jewish maiden, whom the Archangel
salutes as "highly favored of God" and "blessed
among women."
Noblest
men of all ages [have laid] down the best that chivalrous
manhood has to offer at the feet of a woman. But here
we stand in the august presence of the Queen of Saints,
so proclaimed, not by the fallible judgment of earth,
but by the decree of God Himself, commissioning the highest
of Heaven's officials to descend to His foot-stool, and
there proclaim her most blessed, whom the Eternal has
chosen to be the mother of His Son.
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Who
among the profoundest of the whole world is so valued
in the contemplation of heavenly mysteries as to
encompass in his thoughts the full scope, depth,
length and breadth of the meaning that the woman's
"seed" should "bruise the serpent's
head"? [Gen.3:15]
Fear not, Mary, for you have found favor with God,
and behold you shall conceive in your womb and bring
forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He shall
be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest,
and the Lord God shall give to him the throne of
his father, David, and he shall reign over the house
of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall
be no end. [Lk. 1:31-33]
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And
when Mary in wonder and bewilderment asked how all this
could be, the angel answered and said to her, "The
Holy Spirit shall come upon you, the power of the Highest
shall overshadow you. Therefore, the holy One which shall
be born of you shall be called the Son of God." [Lk.1:35]
(Fr. Paul's Letter to Nathaniel. no date)
For
a printable version of this article click
here.
YEAR
OF ST. PAUL (JUNE 28, 2008 - JUNE 29, 2009)
We come to the conclusion of the Octave today, the Feast
of the Conversion of St. Paul, the great Apostle of the
Gentiles. This feast ought to mean a great deal to us
because primarily we are a Pauline institute. We have
Atonement progenitors by family descent. We call St. Francis
our Father, the Patriarch of Assisi, but before Francis
there were other Atonement ancestors from whom we derived
our inheritance. The Children of Judah hark back to Abraham,
although they hark back to him through Jacob and Isaac.
St. Francis is the Isaac, our Isaac, St. Paul is our Abraham.
The
first intimation of the vocation received by the Father
Founder was not Franciscan. It was Pauline. [My father
said to me,] "This is what you will do some day,
found a preaching order like the Paulists." During
the first life of St. Francis we discovered the devotion
to St. Paul. We ought to be started with the Pauline Christology
and his teaching. Then strive to walk in his footsteps
proving ourselves worthy sons of the great apostle to
the Gentiles.
In the Old Testament [2 Kings 2:1-18] we have the great
prophet Elias who, beyond all the rest, worked miracles
even to the raising of the dead. And another son, Eliseus,
rivaled his spiritual father. God honored Elias by taking
him up into heaven without his undergoing the process
of death, and as they were journeying on together Elias
intimated to Eliseus that his end was near. Eliseus asked
that a double portion of his spirit might descend upon
him. Elias said it will be so. And they came to the Jordan.
Elias performed a miracle. He put his mantle on the River
Jordan. It parted and they passed through on dry ground.
Sure enough, Elias' mantle fell from him. Eliseus picked
it up and a double portion of his master fell upon him.
He repeated and rivaled the miracles of his [spiritual]
father in a splendid record for himself in the history
of his regime.
Let us be humble. Let us pray that upon the Friars of
the Atonement may descend a double portion of the spirit
of St. Paul. That spirit must first act within us that
there may happen in us what happened to St. Paul. He said,
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is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in
me. Whatsoever I do, wheresoever I live, I live by
the power of the Son of God, Who gave Himself for
me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me. I will glory in my infirmities that the grace
of God may the more abound. [Gal.
2:19-20] |
(Fr.
Paul's Meditation, 5:30 a.m. January 25, 1940)
For
a printable version of this article click
here.
ONE
& TWO LINERS OF FR. PAUL
On
the Wall Street Crash:
God
has indeed been merciful to save the great nations of
Europe and America from bankruptcy during the crisis of
1931. We can only pray and hope that He will turn the
tide more strongly towards a restoration of general prosperity
during the present year of grace, 1932. ( Fr. Paul to
Bp. B. Jan. 2, 1932)
On
Salvation and Church unity:
Nothing should concern man so much as the salvation of
his immortal soul and nothing is of more importance in
the salvation of the human race than Church unity. (The
Lamp Feb. 1924 p.43)
On
a Smart Pigeon at the Graymoor Farm:
You will be especially interested in the pigeon that was
put in with the ducks right after being hatched and has
grown up with them. He now bosses the flock and even rides
on their backs when they go swimming." (Fr. Paul
to Miss F. C. Aug. 27, 1936)
For
a printable version of this article click
here.
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